Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

14 reviews

keen's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, and Child death

Minor: Alcoholism and Vomit

lostboylio's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

overall a very much horrifying read, a good story but the ending felt wrong and very rushed which i didn’t like

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Cannibalism, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Gun violence, Car accident, and Death of parent

cheye13's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I picked this up because I'd heard raving reviews about it, but I have to admit, I don't understand. I'd seen many say this was "more than a regular zombie book," but while I found it a decent "regular zombie book," I didn't find much more within it. I read Warm Bodies earlier this year, and these stories have much in common.

Every zombie book that's caught my interest always has a unique angle on the fictional science as well as social commentary. This one executes the tropes well, but not in a particularly new or fascinating way. The novel also spends the first chunk setting readers up to despise a number of the main characters, so I was lacking a concern or connection to make action scenes impactful. That lack of emotion probably also affected the pacing - I prefer there to be action or suspense to push such a story forward, and this story failed to create that for me.

In general, an entertaining but not very impactful read for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse and Gun violence

Minor: Alcoholism and Animal death

unlivinh's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Dr. Caldwell and Ms. Justineau could’ve had earth-shattering toxic yuri romance but M.R. Carey is a coward

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Violence, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Confinement, Gun violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Gaslighting

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Fire/Fire injury

juledebaum2's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse and Child death

Minor: Alcoholism

blackberryjambaby's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Alcoholism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Stalking, and Abortion

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

ghostlyprince's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Alcohol

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

A character throughout most of the book is slowly dying from blood poisoning and I'm not sure if that'd fall under the 'terminal illness' tag or not, A character steals a grenade so that if he's in a fatal situation he can go out on his own terms, a character later in the book does something similar

shieldbearer's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

An extremely strong showing from Mike Carey, who I know from his work on X-Men. The characterizations were very well done for the most part- most of them are quite layered. The worldbuilding was strong, and the reviewers asking questions about motivations and "evolution" clearly didn't pay attention because those things were explained in the text. 

Ultimately, a few small things did knock this book down by a star for me. For one, I would have

at least switched the fates of Parks and Gallagher, though I also think you could make an argument for Gallagher's survival being more interesting than his death given the detailed backstory and internal conflict he's given. His interaction with the status quo at the end of the story would have been extremely interesting IMO

Part of this may be because I didn't particularly care for Parks, but this is also because Parks doesn't really have anything interesting going on. 

For another, I feel as though

the Hungry children were too easy to corral at the end.

The questions of the long-term viability of Melanie's plan didn't bother me because  that's not the point of the story. 

Finally, and most glaring IMO,

I feel like Sparks would have encoutnered pregnant hungries if they are able to sexually reproduce. I just have a hard time believing this aspect without a little extra narrative support - especially given how often fatal pregnancy is, and how the fungus wrecks so much of the body and shuts down a lot of its systems. Even mentioning a pregnant hungry in the crowd would have helped. I also can't say I'm a fan of the whole "sex is a human instinct" theme. I expected there to be adult hungries like Melanie that showed up later, if they specified that only the kids were the unique ones earlier I somehow missed it.

Either way, I definitely recommend this even if I feel some elements could have been treated with a bit more care- which is about what I would say about his work on the X-Men, as well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Car accident, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Pregnancy

reddeddy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, Excrement, Police brutality, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Abortion, and Pregnancy